


One Man's Dream is Another Man's Nightmare

by DreamHero



Series: The Hero of Dreams [2]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Corruption, Gen, Hero of Dreams, Hurt No Comfort, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Reason for Renia's Hero Title, Team as Family, Temptation, Time (Linked Universe)-centric, Time POV, fierce deity mask, probably darker then you think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:36:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26807482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamHero/pseuds/DreamHero
Summary: The Links get backed into a corner, into a situation so impossible it seems death is the only certainty for the Heroes of Courage.Time worries he might have to use the mask hidden in the bottom of his bag, but before he can even make that choice, the group learns why Renia's title is the Hero of Dreams.Time regrets not putting on the mask.....AKA: Renia(also known as the Hero of Dreams) hanging out with the Linked Universe gang and the emotional trauma she causes the rest of the group.
Relationships: Four & Hyrule & Legend & Sky & Time & Twilight & Warriors & Wild & Wind (Linked Universe), Time & Dream, Time (Linked Universe) & Original Character(s), Twilight & Wild (Linked Universe), Wild & Dream, Wild (Linked Universe) & Original Character(s)
Series: The Hero of Dreams [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1955038
Comments: 4
Kudos: 60





	One Man's Dream is Another Man's Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> A little warning that this does get dark and mention some mildly disturbing imagery. Including blood, some illusions to mind control/loss of self, and some intrusive dark thoughts curtesy of the Fierce Deity Mask. So if that's not your thing, no worries, do what keeps you safe and happy friend!
> 
> ...  
> I'll admit this is totally me procrastinating and buying time so that I can work on Wildling. I hope its an entertaining distraction! :)

Everything had gone from fine to bad to impossible in the span of minutes. Time blamed himself for not realizing the black blood trail was a trap. It was so simple and Wild had even voiced his concern. Time wished he had listened. They had been ambushed by a horde of monsters, a horde that’s racing towards them. Now they're backed into a literal wall, two of them are critically injured, and the rest are covered in scrapes and bruises they will feel for weeks if they manage to get out of this alive. _‘You have me Hero of Time,_ ’ the voice that always accompanies his darkest thoughts whispers, ‘ _we won’t lose together_.’

Time hates how he considers it. Hates how he glances at Hyrule’s sweating brow as he finishes patching up Four and shakily gets to his feet to help Warriors, before his legs give out. Hates how Four lays propped up against the rocks like a lifeless corpse instead of their friend. Hates how Warriors says he's fine as he clutches at his side and smiles down at Hyrule with a knowing look. Hates how Sky tightens his fists around the Master Sword till they bleed and whispers prayers under his breath. Hates how Dream only grabs the locket around her neck he knows holds pictures of her family. Hates how Twilight wraps an arm around Wild and noises at his hair like he’s saying goodbye. Hates how Wild’s eyes mist ever so slightly as he nuzzles back. Hates how Legend insults Warriors from next to him, but Time can see how he moves to completely defend Warriors from any incoming threat. Hates how he hears Wind mumble ‘loves yous’ and ‘sorries’ under his breath to people who will never hear him. Time hates how his family is staring death in the face and accepting it as if it was just another quest from their cruel Goddess.

‘ _Help them Hero,_ ’ the mask whispers, and Time’s reaching for his bag before he’s fully aware of what he’s doing. He stops himself, but one more glance at his broken comrades has him pushing his hand into his pack, searching for the hidden compartment in the bottom of his bag.

Time’s hand stills when he sees Dream step forward. _‘No!_ ’ the mask rages in his mind, ‘ _you want to save them, release me!_ ’

Dream stands tall and firm. Blood from her head wound trickles down the side of her face staining her snow-white bangs a bright scarlet, but she stands firm in front of the coming hoard. Her mouth is set in a firm line, jaw slightly clenched, its an expression he’s only seen on those possessing the Hero’s Spirit, unwavering determination. And it would make Time equal parts proud and exasperated if it weren’t for the look in her eyes. The look of grim acceptance, but it’s not a look of facing death. It’s a look of someone facing a foe they know they can beat, but they are impossibly tired. Time didn’t think any of the other heroes could make that look beside him, it almost hurts to see it on another Hero’s face, especially on Dream who is so often burning brighter and hotter than a shooting star.

“Dream what are you-,” Sky starts to shout from where he’s kneeling on the ground, but Sky's yell stops when Dream throws out her arms in front of her, facing her palms towards the monsters like she’s about to cast some sort of spell. Time doesn’t know much about the Sheikah, so it’s entirely possible she does possess that kind of magic, but he wonders why she would never mention it if she did. 

It’s Wild who notices first. He breaks from the protective circle they have made around Hyrule and their two most wounded. Twilight yells after him and moves to follow before Legend pulls him back into the wall. Time doesn’t think he’s ever seen Wild look as startled as he does now running at Dream. 

“Dream, stop! You can’t! That’s not magic you-,” whatever else Wild says is drowned out by the familiar deafening sound of reality tearing itself open. A large gust of wind pushes out from Dream. Wind stumbles to the ground, along with several dozens of the enemy horde, who stop their advance to analyze what just happened. 

A thick glittery pink fog covers the grove they stand in, but it’s slowly dissolving and retreating back towards Dream, who’s hunched over on herself clutching her head in pain. Time scans the area even as his ears ring and his hands ever so slightly shake from memories of long completed quests. And there not even ten feet from Dream who is slowly unfolding herself, is a collapsed Wild. Time almost takes a step but a whispering voice curling around the back of his head stops him. ‘ _Oh, oh, hehehe. You are going to regret not using me old man_.’

“Wild!” Twilight runs forward, and Legend doesn’t try to stop him, even moves to go with him, but the warning of the mask has Time on edge. Time is fast enough to grab Legend before he races off, but Twilight slips out of his grip and runs forward completely uncaring and unaware up to his protégé. 

“Time what the fuc-,” Legend stops protesting when he sees the serious look on Time’s face. Legend follows his eye to where he’s watching, and by Legend’s sudden sharp intake, he knows he’s seen it too. Dream hasn’t moved.

“Wild, get up Kit!” Twilight pleads pulling up the other hero, who only responds with a groan. 

Dream twitches. And Time can almost feel the amusement radiated off the mask, the deep distorted laugh echoing in his mind. They need to move, they need to move now.

“Twilight!” Time shouts taking a useless step forward.

“Run! Run now!” Legend yells next to him.

In almost slow motion Twilight blinks at them, still supporting a mostly passed out Wild in his arms, before turning around. Dream turns around at the same time. 

Time can only watch in horror as Dream’s image starts to get fuzzy at the edges like she’s phasing out of this reality. Her eyes almost glow in the light of the midday sun. And her muscles flex visibly under her Shiekah armor. 

“Run.” Time doesn’t know how her voice carries over the rallying cries from the monster hoard, but it rings as clear as a bell in a still summer day.

Twilight doesn’t waste another minute as he scoops up a half-conscious Wild and blots back towards them. 

The monsters begin their charge again, even more, bloodthirsty than before. Dream’s head turns too fast, the edges of her person burling. She faces the approaching hoard. 

Dream holds her hands back out towards the monsters again, but this time her palms are facing the sky. 

“ **Devour.** ”

As though someone just punched a hole into the void itself, inky black tendrils spill out from below Dream. They wrap up her body and swallow her in a cocoon of impenetrable darkness. Someone screams, Time’s not sure who, all he can hear is the mocking voice ringing in his head, _‘I told you Hero. Deny me, and another of your kind shall pay the price instead.’_

Dream is only gone a moment, a few seconds, but it feels impossibly long as Time watches helplessly as the monsters descend upon the bubble of shadows. Time knows he should help. He’s the leader, the Great and Legendary Hero all the others look up too. But he can’t make his feet move. His logical mind can’t find the worth in sacrificing himself to save someone who’s already doomed when he has the whole rest of the group to defend. 

He’s about to call a retreat, and pray that Dream’s defensive magic holds, when there’s a loud popping noise. Monsters go flying across the field, and Time has to pull his own shield to deflect a wayward Wizzrobe from landing on top of him and Wind. 

Bodies cover the grove, bloody and broken and brutal. Time gets vivid flashbacks from the aftermath of the mask. How it would make the killing feel so good, but as soon as it was off the smell of death would hit and he would realize just what a monster he was. _‘That’s right you enjoyed it to Hero. You enjoyed the power I gave you. Put me on again. There’s still plenty of enemies left. We can help the little Hero of Dreams. Or do you enjoy watching your successors relish in their bloodlust just like you do?’_

Time had to fight down the urge to puke at the smell of so much monster blood. The mocking words of the mask did little to help, but Time couldn’t tear his eyes away from the scene in front of him. It was a bloodbath, a massacre. He knew this is what he looked like when he dawned the Fierce Deity Mask to others, but he had never seen another mindlessly overpowered bloodthirsty Hylian before. And he was never giving the mask to another, much less another Hero. It had already done terrible things to Time, he wasn’t putting the kids through that. But this…

Dream was shrouded in a blanket of darkness like the Grim Ripper brought to life. She glided across the field, never taking a step, and sometimes randomly falling into a shadow only to rise out of another 100 feet away. Dream didn't even use a weapon, just her bare hands and shadows she could will from formless fog to impossibly sharp spikes. Time couldn’t see her face, but he could hear her laugh, echoing and layered with a thousand other voices that weren’t hers.

It didn’t even last a minute before every monster expect the black-blooded leader Moblin was left, hanging by the throat in Dream’s hold. Clawing desperately to be let go, and Time had never felt pity for monsters until this moment. It looked truly terrified of the creature in front of it. 

She turned to face them, and Time had to fight down his instinctive urge to draw his weapon. She looked like their other, like Dark. Her eyes were red and void of the usual light that filled them, and her white hair was an inky shadowy black, tumbling past her shoulders. Even her skin had taken on the same ashen gray parlor as their other. Time could barely recognize the imaginative and fearless hero he had come to know. _‘At least she was strong enough to make the choice Hero of Time,’_ the mask whispers in the back of his mind, _‘you hesitated so the little girl had to take your place’._

The shadows swirled and writhed at her feet as though they were alive. Dream glanced down, tilting her head as though listening, but the field was deathly silent in the wake of what they had just seen. And Time could feel his stomach twist uncomfortably. Was that what he looked like when he was under the control of the masks? When he listened to voices no one else could hear? When he listened to it? _‘Of course it is,’_ the voice purred in his ears. Time prayed they could reverse this, prayed even to the cruel goddess above that they could save her. 

A sickening crunching noise pulls Time back into the crimson present. Where Sky stutters a breath next to him, and Legend mutters a cruse rushing to cover Wind’s eyes again as Dream tosses the corpse of the last Moblin to the ground with a small smile that looks wrong and out of place on her face. 

“Renia what-,” Wild takes a step forward, eyes wide and voice just barely trembling. Twilight snaps forward and grabs him around the middle before he can walk any further towards their no longer ally. He looks so lost and broken and Time wishes he could do something, anything to fix this. _’Just put me on brave Hero’_ Time ignores the whispers, as Wild starts to cry, “Renia, please. What are you-,”

“Not all Dreams are fairytales Wild,” she snaps, causally flicking the blood off her hand and towards the ground. The shadows around her feet swirl faster and the blood disappears into the darkness with a hiss. Her smile grows too big for her face, teeth too sharp and too white to be natural. The twisted mass of darkness at her feet explodes outward across the field, as Time pushes the other heroes backward. She keeps her unblinking eyes focused on all of them and none of them at once, as the unholy sounds of living shadows devouring the flesh of the broken bloody corpses of the dead monsters echo around them and into Time’s nightmares. Dream laughs, as the shadows lick at Time’s feet, and for the first time he regrets not putting on the mask, “Some of us are Nightmares.”

**Author's Note:**

> This sprawled so far out of control oh goodness... this was all because I had the random thought of, "how would Renia handle Dark Link" which turned into "what if she didn't have a Dark Link because she became them!", which eventually turned into this... yeah, it was a trip for me too. Still not quite sure how I ended here, but I kinda like it. Hope you guys do too!
> 
> I'd love to hear what ideas and/or theories you guys have for Renia/Dream! Share them below and maybe it will inspire me to write a new one-shot! :)
> 
> Leave a comment or a kudos if you want (I do love them so!)
> 
> And I will see you next time! Bye! :)


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